How do you learn?

How do you learn? 

And perhaps - more importantly - how do you learn so you can replicate what you’ve learnt? 

I suspect most of us would reply by saying we need to apply the learning. To understand the model, and apply it, test it, and explore it in real life situations. 

How can we therefore use this insight in other situations in our lives where we’re wanting to learn, or wanting others to learn? 

As a coach it’s interesting how often I hear of leaders telling people what to do and getting frustrated when they don’t learn and can’t replicate it in other situations. As a coach I often do know what I would do in a situation but to share that with my coachee moves my role into one of mentoring which has its place when they’re new to a process or skill. 

For the majority of times, however, it’s about asking questions, and helping them find the answers and truth for themselves. 

How can you ensure you help others learn for the future today, rather than tell them your answer?

5 day Mindset Challenge

Join me on the 9th September for the Mindset Challenge where we'll be exploring the impact our thinking is having on us achieving our goals.

Whilst predominantly aimed at those working in Procurement it's certainly not closed to anyone from any area of work or life wishing to explore this subject more fully.

As a coach I did wonder about the subject for the challenge as I could have chosen any soft skill. 


A soft skills challenge would certainly be a little too broad - after all which of the many soft skills would we focus on: confidence, communication, influencing, creativity, conflict management, motivation, change management and so on?
And yet the difference that makes the difference for everyone taking part may lie in any one of the above.
So we’re going to look to the unconscious and often missing link that supports every soft skill - MINDSET - the thinking that triggers and informs our actions.

The missing link that when we’re struggling with a situation helps us to find a solution.

The missing link that can make the difference between achieving our goals or not.

The missing link that when used effectively can truly transform situations.

Which means, what ever the underlying soft skills needed to be nurtured, the questions and tasks in the challenge can be applied to them, and to the situation you’re wanting to transform.

So why not join me for the five day procurement mindset challenge starting on 9th September.

I don't believe it was raining

“I don’t believe it was raining” was a reply to me posting this video on FB; “It’s not rained here all day and we’re only a few miles away”.
This is happening to every one of us every day - perhaps not when there’s video evidence to prove the validity of what’s being said - but certainly in everyday conversations.
We use our own life experience, values, beliefs and behaviours to judge the efficacy of what the other person is saying. Or they use theirs to judge ours.
If the judging party(s) stays unconscious to this pattern it can lead to very fixed mindsets and a lack of movement or progress in situations.
The key for me is remembering that passion in another that we don’t understand is often the flag that we’ve both got data we’re using to make our assessment that the other person doesn’t have access to.
I remember a colleague resisting very strenuously a suggestion I had made. I said “I can tell by your tonality that you feel very strongly about this but currently I don’t have the data to agree with you - help me to understand what I’m missing”.
What strategies do you adopt to help understand what you’re missing?